G. Ritter - Böcker

The activities of the semiconductor industry to introduce a new, large wafer diameter were triggered by expected potential overall savings - cost and resource - and an anticipated increasing demand for Silicon wafers. In the beginning, around 1994, agreement on the diameter of the next wafer generation had to be achieved and finally 300 mm was globally accepted to be the next wafer diameter, a decision obtained at international summits in 1994/1995, based on the work of a SEMI task force.

Several workshops on 300 mm wafers have been held by SEMI, JSNM and other organizations during the past few years. However, the present E-MRS conference on Techniques and Challenges for 300 mm Silicon: Processing, Characterization, Modeling and Equipment was the first international scientific conference about this subject.

The papers - invited as well as submitted - cover a wide range of subjects, financial issues, fab concepts, crystal growth, wafer process development, material and defect issues, wafer characterization and provide an excellent review of the present status of 300 mm technology.

At the annual meetings of the International Federation of Multiple Sclerosis Socie­ ties (IFMSS) the representatives of the national MS societies of numerous countries assemble for discussions and reports on work accomplished, under way, and to be undertaken in the future. In addition to publicity work, education, and patient ser­ vices, there has been an increasing interest in obtaining first hand, reliable, and re­ alistic information not only on the medical problems relevant to diagnosis, treat­ ment, and the management of MS, but also on progress in the difficult field of MS research. For this purpose the International Medical Advisory Board (IMAB) was founded. In the past years its members have organized a number of symposia in conjunc­ tion with the IFMSS meetings in New York, Copenhagen, Barcelona, Toronto, Am­ sterdam. The program of the G6ttingen symposium, relevant in its focus to the 1978 meeting of the IFMSS in Hannover, had the double purpose of bringing together scientists from many countries with active MS societies, and to inform the organi­ zers and members of these societies, and thereby also the MS patients, of problems and progress in a number of areas of MS research. The program was conceived as a survey of newer work undertaken in basic and experimental MS research and, on the clinical side, as a reassessment of the prerequisites in the diagnosis of MS, the value of laboratory tests, some therapeutic approaches, and organizational princi­ ples in the management of MS.